The facility layout problem in non-rectangular logistics parks with split lines

A logistics park is an exactly delimited domain having a large space to efficiently and effectively organize, manage, and ship goods. The facility layout problem in a logistics park is concerned with determining the proper physical organization of a number of interacting functional areas. It differs from traditional facility layout problems in the context of split lines - railways or highways - which may cross a logistics park and partition it into several parts. Logistics parks also commonly have an irregular shape instead of a rectangular shape. These additional features make the facility layout problem in a logistics park complex and require explicit modeling. This research proposes two mathematical programming models to obtain competitive solutions to the facility layout problem in a logistics park. The first model involves allocating the functional areas into different parts resulting from the given split lines. The second model uses slicing structure technique to determine the final layout of all functional areas. Given that the facility layout problem in a logistics park is NP-complete, a heuristic approach combining improved adaptive genetic algorithm with scatter search is presented. Computational results show that the both proposed models and solution approach are effective and efficient.